to Hong Kong Com
Any reply to this Letter
should be addressed:
"The Secretary,
Custom House, London, E.C.3."
and not to any particular
individual. The following number should be quoted: No. 60894/1937
Failure to comply with these directions may involve delay
Sir,
ہو
NATION
SCHEME
MEN
REC!
11
1
C. C. REGE
CUSTOM HOUSE,
PB.
.3.
4
LOWER THAMES STREET,
LONDON, E.C.3.
10th November, 1937.
I have laid before the Board of Customs and Excise 2 Mr. Cowell's letter of 3rd November, 1937, (53859/37)
transmitting for observations a copy of a despatch from the Officer Administering the Government of Hong Kong, on the subject of the collection of entertainments duty on admission tickets which are sold at prices exceeding the normal prices by persons other than authorised agents.
2. In reply I am to state that the question of the resale of admission tickets is one of difficulty. The point of law whether the excess over the advertised published price of admission is in fact a "payment for admission" within the meaning of the Finance (New Duties) Act, 1916, and therefore dutiable is open to doubt and would be governed by the particular circumstances of each individual case.
3. But apart from the legal question, practical considerations arise. This practice only occurs on exceptional occasions, and the entertainments duty involved is in the aggregate trifling, so that the cost of special arrangements for making detections where possible in such cases would be out of proportion to the duty involved. Moreover, in the big majority of cases the resales take place surreptitiously, so that it would be almost impossible to detect them. It is true that they are sometimes effected by advertisement or outside the entrance to the place where the entertainment is to be held. But even if it were practicable to detect the culprits, in these circumstances, it might well be impossible to trace them afterwards and to collect the duty.
4.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.